Page 2 of 3

Begin Yoga with a 5-Week Morning or Evening Class

November 7, 2013 / Kathy Navis

You are invited to begin exploring yoga as a means to better health and well-being in a 5-session weekly class opportunity at Junction Center Yoga Studio here in Jacksonport.

Yoga originated in India over 5,000 years ago. The name for these ancient teachings is a Sanskrit word meaning union or joining, similar to yoke. The physical postures or poses are called Asanas and are intended to join body, mind and spirit. Whether it’s the immediate reduction in levels of stress or the measurable improvements in circulation and blood pressure, practicing yoga is one of the most enjoyable forms of preventive medicine you can undertake. After a few sessions you will begin to notice improvements in your flexibility and balance. Over time, Yoga is also a strength builder.

On Tuesday mornings from 9 – 10:15 am or Wednesday evenings from 6 – 7:15 pm you are encouraged to enroll in 5-class Beginner’s weekly series. The series provides you with a basic knowledge and practice of yoga including an explanation of the philosophy, the postures (asanas) and breath work (pranayama). In the total series of 5 classes, you will learn all of the poses for a beginner’s home yoga practice.

The 5-class training series costs $60 or for those under 30 years of age, $50.

The benefits of Yoga do not occur overnight, but the results are indeed long lasting. As you become fit and flexible most practitioners will begin to notice an increase in overall vitality and a greater sense of wellness. The different Asanas each focus on gently improving the functional capacity of your skeletal joints, muscles and connective tissue. By linking the actions to the breath, one also begins to “quiet the mind” – to hush that endless stream of thoughts that some mistake for consciousness.

Yoga students will also begin to take greater notice of their posture as they gain awareness of the alignment and range of motion inherent in their own musculoskeletal system. According to a notable physiologist, we become less flexible as we get older mainly because of certain changes that take place in the connective tissues as our bodies gradually begin to dehydrate. It is believed that stretching stimulates the production or retention of lubricants between the connective tissue fibers, thus preventing the formation of adhesions. Perhaps the greatest realization you will experience in taking up the practice of yoga is that you are actually capable of changing and improving your range of motion.

Classroom attire in Yoga sessions is freeform, but dressing in layers is advisable so you can peel them off depending on the level of exercise and temperature of the room. Students will often wear leotards, shorts, t-shirts and tank tops under a layer of sweats that can be removed.

There is only one way to find out if yoga is right for you. Sign up for a free beginner’s class at Junction Center. All of the equipment is provided in a comfortable environment. Beginner’s classes are for all ages, male and female and for any level of fitness or ability.

RSVP on Junction Center’s Facebook Page or call 920.823.2763 to join or learn more.

Tai Chi with Carol Hoehn at Junction Center Yoga Studio

June 3, 2013 / Stephen Kastner

Carol Hoehn returns lead students of Tai Chi in an ongoing series, sharing her knowledge of one the oldest forms of Chinese martial arts.

Often described as “meditation in motion,” Harvard Health Watch says, “Tai chi might as well be called medication in motion. There is growing evidence that this mind-body practice, which originated in China as a martial art, has value in treating or preventing many health problems. And you can get started even if you aren’t in top shape or the best of health.“

Carol Hoehn presents summer classes in tai chi chuan, meeting twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8 – 9:15 am at Junction Center Yoga Studio. Lifelong ballet dance instructor, Hoehn studies tai chi chuan under Chan Ming Shu and Chen Tzu Wei, two highly regarded masters. As practitioner, spending most of each year in China under their mentorship, she has entered and placed in the World Cup Tai Chi Chuan Championships in 2008 and 2010.

Her twice-weekly morning classes at Junction Center will be appropriate for students with no prior experience and will focus on the basic principles of breath and motion, including a basic form for daily practice. Loose-fitting clothing is encouraged and appropriate for the classes.

Tai chi chuan is at the root of all traditional martial arts and is practiced for both meditative and health benefits as well as for self-defense. It is also practiced by people of all ages. Carol’s classes also include a study of Qigong, “breath work” or “energy work,” which consists of focusing on the action of breathing combined with movement.

“A growing body of carefully conducted research is building a compelling case for tai chi as an adjunct to standard medical treatment for the prevention and rehabilitation of many conditions commonly associated with age,” says Peter M. Wayne, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Tai Chi and Mind-Body Research Program at Harvard’s Osher Research Center.

Call 920.823.2763 for more information or to reserve a place.

Celebrate the Summer Solstice with Yoga Jams and Kirtan, June 22

May 17, 2013 / Stephen Kastner

Join us at Junction Center Yoga Studio on Saturday, June 22 from 7 – 9 pm, as Dennis Hawk and Amy Schneider lead a shared musical experience known as Kirtan, featuring Sanskrit mantras set to fresh melodies and sounds.

Kirtan is intended as a holistic healing experience designed to bring participants into a more organic form of meditation, either in stillness or in motion. One of the oldest of sacred sound traditions, Kirtan’s call-and-response chanting involves Satsang, an ancient Sanskrit term that describes the community that exists between an assembly of people who listen to, talk about, and assimilate their impressions of truthfulness.

On Solstice Saturday morning, Level I and Level II yoga classes at Junction Center will include Yoga Jams – live music to accompany your asanas.

Dennis Hawk, a Cherokee of Mesquaki descent, a pipe carrier and teacher of Native American spirituality, is also a well-known singer, songwriter and story-teller who plays guitar and Native American flute. He does a superb job of sharing his Kirtan insights and knowledge of Sanskrit chanting, its purpose and how it may affect you in order to deepen your own understanding and spiritual experience with Kirtan. There are no prerequisites or religious beliefs needed to participate in Kirtan, just bring an open heart and mind and join in by lifting your voice or just sit back and listen to how the music, vibration and meaning impacts you physically, mentally and spiritually.

Kathleen Kelly-Hoffman and Dennis Hawk Present Winter Heart Renewal Yoga Retreat, Feb 15-17

January 8, 2013 / Kathy Navis

Mark your calendar from Friday, February 15 at 6 pm to Sunday February 17 at noon for a spirit-filled weekend, the Winter Heart Renewal Yoga Retreat at Junction Center Yoga Studio & Zen Arts in Jacksonport.

Kathleen Kelly-Hoffman and Dennis Hawk will join you in Door County for a winter wonderland yoga and sacred musical experience. The retreat will consist of yoga asana workshops, meditation, breath practice and some amazing kirtan sessions. All organic meals and lodging are included in the fee. Outdoor fun with snowshoeing or cross-country skiing is also available as part of the retreat. Appropriate for all levels of practice, we look forward to playing with you all this winter.

Fee: $245
Based on double occupancy. Single room $305.
Without lodgings fee is $185 also attend 1/2 day $40 or a full day $110, Kirtan sessions $20.

Schedule:

Friday, February 15
4 – 5 pm check in
5 pm orientation
5:30 – 6:30 pm dinner
7 – 8:30 pm Hanuman experience and introduction to kirtan
8:30 – 9:30 pm restorative yoga and yoga nidra

Saturday, February 16
6:30 – 7:30 am yoga practice
8 am breakfast
9 am meditation and pranayama practice
10 am asana workshop
Noon Lunch
1 – 3:30 pm outdoor fun and free time
3:30 – 5:30 pm asana workshop
6 pm dinner
7 pm Hanuman experience and kirtan

Sunday, February 17
7 – 8:00 am yoga practice

8 – 9:15 am meditation

9:30 am breakfast
10 – 11 am pranayama
11 am – noon closing ceremony

Dennis Hawk

Yoga Nidra refers to an ancient meditation practice, as well as the state of conscious deep sleep it is said to produce.

“Sleep (nidra) is ignorance, but yoga nidra is the doorway to higher consciousness. It is the means of understanding, integrating and utilizing the various dimensions of our own mind.” – Swami Karmananda Saraswati

Dennis Hawk will lead a shared musical experience known as kirtan, featuring Sanskrit mantras set to fresh melodies and sounds. Kirtan is intended as a holistic healing experience designed to bring participants into a more organic form of meditation, either in stillness or in motion. One of the oldest of sacred sound traditions, Kirtan’s call-and-response chanting involves Satsang, an ancient Sanskrit term that describes the community that exists between an assembly of people who listen to, talk about, and assimilate their impressions of truthfulness.

Free Introduction to Yoga Classes at Junction Center on January 14

December 28, 2012 / Kathy Navis

You’re never too young or too old to reap the health benefits of yoga. From the Sanskrit word for “union”, yoga is a practice that uses posture and breathing techniques to induce relaxation and improve strength, and its health benefits may surpass those of any other activity.

There are two opportunities to attend a free class in Beginner’s Yoga on Monday, January 14. The free morning session takes place from 9:30 – 11 am or an evening session meets from 5:30 – 7 pm. This first, no-obligation, sample class will be followed by an optional 6-class Beginner’s weekly series (continuing in the same time schedule) that you may enroll in if you are interested. The free Intro Class is taught by Junction Center’s founder Kathy Navis and is intended to provide you with some basic knowledge and practice of yoga including an explanation of the philosophy, the postures (asanas) and breath work (pranayama). If you choose to pursue it, the total 7 weeks of classes will instruct you in all of the poses for a beginner’s home yoga practice.

The six-class full beginner’s training course begins on Monday, January 21, meeting at the same times and costs $65 for 6 classes or $55 for those under 30 years old. Junction Center is located at 3435 Junction Rd., Egg Harbor, Wisconsin. You can find out more by calling the studio at 920.823.2763.

Buddhist Meditation Retreat with Michael Stone, December 14-17, 2012

October 23, 2012 / Kathy Navis

Michael Stone will once again be leading a retreat here at Junction Center in Door County, Wisconsin in December, 2012.

The dates of the retreat are December 14-17. We will begin on Friday afternoon and go through midday on Monday. This will be a silent meditation retreat with yoga practice each day.

Michael Stone

Michael Stone is a Yoga teacher, Buddhist teacher, author and psychotherapist. He is the Founder of Center of Gravity, an urban community in Toronto integrating Buddhist practice, Yoga and social action. He is a voice for a new generation of young people integrating spiritual practice with environmental and social issues. His most recent book is “Awake in the World: Teachings from Yoga & Buddhism for Living an Engaged Life.”

Cost of the retreat is $450 including meals and lodging. To save your place, please print and mail the form below with a non-refundable deposit for $100. Please, make checks payable to Junction Center. We will be sending another form to registered attendees to gather more info when we get closer to the retreat date.

Mail to:
Junction Center
3435 N Junction Rd
Egg Harbor, WI 54209

Name:______________________________

Postal Address:__________________________________________________

Email Address:________________________

Phone:_____________________________

Junction Center Yoga Celebrates 10-year Anniversary with a Festive Gathering and Sanskrit Musical Meditation

October 12, 2011 / Kathy Navis

On Sunday, October 23, beginning at 4 pm, Junction Center founder Kathy Navis invites you to walk the labyrinth, sit around the bonfire and enjoy some delicious food from Greens N Grains Deli, followed by sharing a very special musical experience inside the Studio.

Dennis Hawk

From 7 – 9 pm, Dennis Hawk will lead a shared musical experience known as Kirtan, featuring Sanskrit mantras set to fresh melodies and sounds. Kirtan is intended as a holistic healing experience designed to bring participants into a more organic form of meditation, either in stillness or in motion. One of the oldest of sacred sound traditions, Kirtan’s call-and-response chanting involves Satsang, an ancient Sanskrit term that describes the community that exists between an assembly of people who listen to, talk about, and assimilate their impressions of truthfulness.

It was more than ten years ago that Kathy Navis was practicing yoga with a group that met in the basement of Melissa Nelson’s former chiropractic office in Sturgeon Bay. She didn’t intend to become a yoga teacher, but when the instructor who had been commuting from Green Bay decided to stop coming, the group was left without a leader. They asked if Kathy would take on the role, so she proceeded to get her yoga teacher certification, but still had no intention of opening her own studio or to teach more than a couple of classes.

At the same time she was selling her business, the former Imported clothing store in Egg Harbor. She wanted to move out of the upstairs apartment and had been searching for a farm-ette.

“I had pretty much given up the search when my realtor called and said, ‘Kathy you have got to see this farm.’ It soon became Junction Center,” says Kathy. “The previous owners, Dick and Barb Kolpack were blacksmiths and did metal sculpture so they had remodeled some of the barn and had built the lean to, which is now the yoga studio, as a blacksmith shop.”

When Kathy walked into that former blacksmith shop she immediately realized it was the perfect yoga studio. She went home with her head spinning and then decided to act. She made an appointment to meet with the owners and walked in with all sorts of statistics on comparable sales and other bargaining tactics and came to meet Dick, all 300 lbs. of him standing behind an anvil with a huge hammer in his hands.

Kathy says, “He was not interested in any of my info, but when I proposed a price that was in their ballpark he said, ‘Do you drink coffee? I roast my own beans’ and the next thing we were sitting around the kitchen table crafting an agreement that everyone was happy with.”

In July of 2001 she began working with a local carpenter to turn the blacksmith shop into a yoga studio. They added skylights, patio doors and a large picture window looking out over the meadow in the back. The floor was a concrete slab which Kathy was determined to turn into a heated floor. She did the research online and spoke with contractor friends to come up with a plan… one that unfortunately included hauling all of the concrete in 5-gallon buckets to create mass for the heating system. She called some friends including Wence Martinez and his son, to help create a day long bucket brigade.

Much has transpired over the past ten years and now Junction Center Yoga Studio is a mainstay, with regular classes for all levels of practitioners. Yoga has also transformed here in Door County with the general public coming to realize that practicing yoga is one of the most enjoyable forms of preventive medicine you can undertake. On Sunday, October 23 Kathy Navis invites you to celebrate a ten-year anniversary.

If you want to experience yoga at Junction Center, Kathy is teaching a new beginner’s 4-class session starting Monday, October 31, from 9:30 – 11 am. Junction Center Yoga Studio is located at 7821 Junction Road, (just off County Hwy. A, north of Jacksonport).

Current Articles About Yoga

September 28, 2011 / Kathy Navis

The New York Times has a special ongoing section dedicated to the current news about yoga. One recent article includes a slideshow with a preview…

“For some yoga practitioners, the body is a sacred vessel that should not be tainted. For others, the skin represents a blank, movable canvas for tattoos displaying thoughts, texts and deities that inspire and inform their practice. These works of art, stretched across shoulders, chests, arms and legs, may be tucked away during the workday. But when clothing comes off, as it often does in yoga studios, they are on display for all to see.”

Here are a few more fresh articles from the New York Times yoga section:

The Sky’s the Limit as More Yogis Seek Open Spaces

By MARY BILLARD
Outdoor yoga, once mostly confined to resorts, is spreading in the New York area to rooftops, parks and beaches.

Yoga Therapy May Help Prevent and Treat Orthopedic Problems

By JANE E. BRODY
It pays to know about methods of prevention and treatment for orthopedic problems that are low-cost and rely almost entirely on self-care.

Yoga as a Stress Reliever in Infertility?

By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS
In recent years, “yoga for fertility” classes have become increasingly popular.

Sri Lankan MP’s Take up Yoga, the Africa Yoga Project, India seeks to patent 1,000 asanas and frees prisoners for studying Yoga

December 11, 2010 / Kathy Navis

The BBC’s Charles Haviland reports, “Sri Lankan members of parliament are to be offered yoga sessions at work, starting next month.”

“With peace in Sri Lanka, the most stressed-out people are now the politicians,” said the instructor in charge, Chamin Warnakula.

His yoga organization has produced a leaflet headed “Yoga for MPs – For Mind, Body and Soul”.

Breathing and posture exercises will “teach them discipline, good behaviour, and how to control themselves in stressful situations”, he said.

“MPs get very stressed and they’re not in a position to do other exercise,” said his pupil, Sanjeewa Perera.

Film actress and Sri Lankan MP Malani Fonseka

The sessions will be held before parliamentary sessions begin in hopes of deescalating tension. The BBC reports that film actress and MP Malani Fonseka introduced the idea of yoga sessions for Members of Parliament noting that, “if the lawmakers concentrated intently on what their bodies were doing, it would bring calmness to their minds, giving them a break from stress factors and helping them put things in perspective.”

“We hope at least that by doing yoga they can learn to respect democracy and be more disciplined,” said Sri Lankan Parliament member Ranjan Ramanayake,.

On other pages, the BBC reports that, The Indian government is planning to patent nearly a thousand yoga postures. Western companies are claiming the rights to certain asanas, driving India to protect their cultural heritage in defense of everyone’s rights to practice yoga. Click to read and listen… Can you patent yoga postures?

Yoga is spreading across Kenya, where thanks to the Africa Yoga Project, a non-profit organization, the classes are free to even the poorest communities. Read the entire BBC feature… Stretching the bodies and minds of Kenyans.

Indian authorities in the state of Madhya Pradesh say that Yoga helps to improve prisoners’ self-control and reduce aggression so they are being freed early if they complete yoga courses. For every three months spent practicing Yoga posture, balance and breathing the inmates can cut their jail time by 15 days. Read and watch this BBC feature to learn more… India inmates take yoga to reduce their jail sentences.

It’s Never too Late to Begin Practicing Yoga

October 20, 2010 / Kathy Navis

Long before Ponce de Leon thought he discovered the fountain of youth, students of yoga were learning to apply real secrets regarding how to age gracefully.

If only Ponce de Leon had made it to India... he might have discovered the real fountain of youth!

Yoga originated in India over 5,000 years ago. The name for these ancient teachings is a Sanskrit word meaning union or joining, similar to yoke. The physical postures or poses are called Asanas and are intended to join body, mind and spirit. But the Asanas are only one part of an “eight-limbed” system that includes mental and spiritual well being as well as physical activity. In the West most yoga instruction is centered on the Asanas as a means to well being.

Whether it’s the immediate reduction in levels of stress or the measurable improvements in circulation and blood pressure, practicing yoga is one of the most enjoyable forms of preventive medicine you can undertake. After a few sessions you will begin to notice improvements in your flexibility and balance. Over time, Yoga is also a strength builder.

Yoga students will also begin to take greater notice of their posture as they gain awareness of the alignment and range of motion inherent in their own musculoskeletal system. According to a notable physiologist, we become less flexible as we get older mainly because of certain changes that take place in the connective tissues as our bodies gradually begin to dehydrate. It is believed that “stretching stimulates the production or retention of lubricants between the connective tissue fibers, thus preventing the formation of adhesions.” Perhaps the greatest realization you will experience in taking up the practice of yoga is that you are actually capable of changing and improving your range of motion.

“This is what aging gracefully looks like,” says the slogan on a Junction Center t-shirt that one of the yoga students is wearing. Classroom attire in Yoga sessions is freeform, but dressing in layers is advisable so you can peel them off depending on the level of exercise and temperature of the room. Students will often wear leotards, shorts, t-shirts and tank tops under a layer of sweats that can be removed.

There is only one way to find out if yoga is right for you. Sign up for a beginner’s 6-session introduction at Junction Center. All of the equipment is provided in a safe and comfortable environment. Beginner’s classes are for all ages, male and female and for any level of fitness or ability. Every 6 weeks a new Beginner’s Session starts, meeting each week on Mondays from 9 – 10:30 am. Call 920.823.2763 to make a reservation or continue to explore this Website to learn more.

Junction Center Yoga Studio